Research Park Occupancy Reaches All Time High

Category : Research Park
Posted on: November 14, 2017

This year, Research Park occupancy reached an all-time high at a staggering 97 percent. With the welcoming of more agricultural, financial services, and global companies, collaboration between innovative businesses, students and faculty have never been greater. Research Park is now home to 110+ companies and employs more than 600 student interns.

Laura Freichs comments on the increase of financial service insurance trading companies, or “FinTech” companies in Research Park, explaining, “I think that most people assume that companies like Google, Microsoft or Facebook are top employers, but one of the trends that we’re starting to see is an opportunity for FinTech companies to offer very exciting jobs.” FinTech company Country Financial opened their DigitaLab this year to develop mobile applications that enhance the customer experience and create brand awareness.

Research Park has also welcomed new AgTech companies, such as AGCO, Syngenta, and Indigo Ag. Laura Freichs states that “The worlds of agriculture and technology have melded together, so you see a lot of the ag companies needing both agronomy expertise and technology expertise.”

This year, Research Park has also welcomed Huawei, a global information and communication technology company based in Shenzhen, China to collaborate with students, scholars and researchers in exploring innovations in software technology. 

Research Park’s occupancy growth does not end there. On December 11, 2017, Brunswick Corporation, will have their grand opening, and Synchrony Financial, a credit card issuer to many retailers, will also have its opening soon.

With occupancy growth comes architectural growth. In order to keep up with interest in the park, Research Park is opening two new buildings, the Mixed Use Building and the TDFV IV Building. This way, occupancy can continue to grow and companies can continue to foster Illinois’ top tech talent.

Read the full story on the Daily Illini.